Downton Abbey Series Finale Plot Revealed: Expect 'Love' and 'Loss'

With Downton Abbey‘s series finale set to air across the pond in less than six weeks, Masterpiece is revealing new details about the 90-minute swan song.

The sendoff, which will air in the U.S. on March 6 (9/8c, PBS), offers “all the love and loss, happiness and heartbreak of Downton Abbey, and, as the family and servants prepare to welcome 1926, they celebrate an unforgettable New Years Eve together at the great house,” per the official logline.

Production spent a week at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, which doubled as the location for Brancaster, the setting of last season’s shooting party hosted by Lord Sinderby. Several scenes were also shot at the Ritz Hotel in central London.

On the guest casting front, Lily James and Matt Barber will return as Lady Rose and Atticus Aldridge, respectively, while Patricia Hodge has been tapped to play Bertie Pelham’s mother.

At the Emmys in September, original cast member Jim Carter, who plays Carson, told TVLine that he found the finale “strangely affecting,” adding, “We do a job, we move on, that’s the rhythm of our lives. But we shot the last scene that the servants do together — it was quite a sentimental scene — and at the end of it, I completely took myself by surprise by … getting quite tearful.”